Trying to capture that sweet spot in a new way

It’s been too long since I’ve updated, sorry. I did indeed take something of a “break” from the design work for a while after my last push to make something playable for the DC Gameday, so since some people have been clearly waiting for a final product on pins and needles, I apologize. Part of that has been because I shipped the (mostly finished) document off to a couple of good editor friends to have them go over things with a fine-tooth comb as well.

Enough excuses – For those of you that have already run Old School Hack games just based off of what I’ve got so far (and note that a near-finished version of the game was posted in the forums), you’ll be pleased to know that for all intents and purposes you’ve been pretty much playing the final game.

The last week and a half has seen me going through the doc and making all the changes as recommended by my editors and by those of you that have provided invaluable comments, suggestions and questions, as well as filling in some of the empty gaps that I had put off to the last minute.

What’s left to do:

Send the doc off to my (other) editor for a final go-through.

Finish putting together the somewhat meager artwork I’ve got and place it in the layout.

Go through the doc and rasterize various parts that seem to be causing PDF issues for some Mac users. You can convert all your scanned documents into editable file formats, Online PDF editor document converters not only offers the conversion of the common work documents, such as Office documents, to PDF.

And there we go! Keep an eye on the forums, I’ll probably be posting one last updated (near-finished but artworkless) review copy sometime this week (the one I’m sending to my editor) and then I’ll start the last push for final release, hopefully around Thanksgiving. There, I’ve given myself a deadline.

Feel free to hit me any questions you have either in the comments or in the forums. Thanks!

3 Comments on “Fall 2010 Progress Report”

Wow. Just wow. I’m new-again to D&D after about a two decades absence and have been just devouring sites, maps, game variants, hacks and so forth… I stumbled onto your site via Dyson’s blog and speaking as a graphic designer I was blown away by your approach. So fresh, clean, immediate. Its a rare find in a gaming world dominated by an awful lot of good intention and enthusiasm but not a lot of clarity. I mean, just look at that character sheet!!! I know I’m gushing but look at it! Its all about play and momentum, not game energy sapping stats accounting…

I’m hoping you gain a lot of traction (if you haven’t already) with this… it is well deserved and I think the big boys (WotC and ilk) could learn a thing or two or a dozen from your approach.

Amazed.

2kirin said at 6:42 pm on November 20th, 2010:

Wow, thanks Moose!

There’s plenty of credit to go around – to Eric P.’s original game, to my awesome playtesters, to my inspirations (if you’re interested in awesomely-visually-designed RPGs, make sure you hie on over to John Harper’s work: http://mightyatom.blogspot.com/), and so on.

Glad to hear the gaming bug has bit you again. In my opinion, we’ve entered a real renaissance era with a lot of awesome and amazing new games and gaming ideas being explored out there. I’d highly recommend strongarming some comrades into committing to a regular weekly evening, and just get back into it.

If you manage to get some Old School Hack going, be sure to drop on by the forums and tell us about it!

I also find the design appreciable; so few releases consider the “spread” and fall back on the dated encyclopedia look. I haven’t studied the rules in detail, but the style of “hack” is easy to follow. You should consider advertising in the OSR fan magazine FIGHT ON!

What do you think?

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